Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[chrissyr]

From small to big. MANY of the eggs have multiple spots, like they've been spattered with paint. Some of the "meat" spots are large, and sometimes more than one in a single egg.

These eggs really are kinda gross sometimes. I feed them to the dog.

Just wanted to update you on mine: they are getting alot better on the spots in the egg. They've been laying 3-4 weeks, and most days there isn't much at all in there. I think I have one hen in particular who's laying those eggs with the blood/meat spots. So if your new ones are a different line from a different breeder, hopefully they'll be much better than what you're getting. You've got great chances. If these are that bad and no one wants the eggs, you can keep those for yourself or cull them. I'm sure if you put them on Craigslist, they'd even re-home really quick.
But I would definately think twice before breeding them if you didn't like the big spots in there. I think in every breed you will always get some somewhere, and your customers should know that. If they don't, then you'll get complaints. If they don't like that, then it won't work out. Egg factories just sell those eggs to other places. They still get used and people still eat them. They just don't know it.

 

[erinnyes]

Roo #1 is the better roo in my opinion. He has a nice back and tail set and looks proportionate in all the right places. His leg coloring could be a bit darker, but you can work on that in later offspring.

Roo#2, IMO, from what I can see on my monitor, he has too much color or brownish coloring on his lower body and it should be black. Also, he has shafting on the breast, which is not wanted in Marans for breeding quality birds or show birds. Shafting will breed forward and is IMO, indicative of Wheaten genetics in the birds parental lineage.

Thank you!! That is very helpful! I had been wondering why the second boy looked a little lighter-colored than his brother, it is in fact possible that there could be a little wheaten in his line somewhere. Roo 1's light colored feet are a mystery to me, but at least in person they are not so shockingly white as they came out in the picture.

Based on this feedback, I will keep #1 and not #2 for breeding. Thank you so much for your help!

 

[LVMet]

Thanks everyone for your help.

 

[LVMet]

Truly a blessing to have such support. I really can't thank everyone enough!

 

[ladycat]

Your wheatens
will get white leg feathers (if you have any), and the BTB will have brown/caramel leg feathers.

Presumably I have both, because I looked, and some have white leg feathers, some have dark.

 

[sbrown]

Here are a few pics of some 8 week old Marans I hatched. I only got 4 and these 2 Im pretty sure Im keeping. I think three of the 4 may be cockerels. I have not mastered the art of taking chicken pics yet so these are not very good. Their leg feathing is good on both and the Black copper one I am pretty sure is a cockerel and the Blue one is a pullet I beleive. This black one is the biggest one of the 3 and has a lot of coloring already showing to me. Is this good? Will the color get darker as he ages. I read that mossy is not desired. The other two Cockerels are not showing this much color yet. The blue pullet is prettier than this pic shows. Would breeding a black copper to a blue be ok? I assuming you'd get blue copper offspring?

 

[desertmarcy]

Here are a few pics of some 8 week old Marans I hatched. I only got 4 and these 2 Im pretty sure Im keeping. I think three of the 4 may be cockerels. I have not mastered the art of taking chicken pics yet so these are not very good. Their leg feathing is good on both and the Black copper one I am pretty sure is a cockerel and the Blue one is a pullet I beleive. This black one is the biggest one of the 3 and has a lot of coloring already showing to me. Is this good? Will the color get darker as he ages. I read that mossy is not desired. The other two Cockerels are not showing this much color yet. The blue pullet is prettier than this pic shows. Would breeding a black copper to a blue be ok? I assuming you'd get blue copper offspring?

No, you don't want that much color on the breast. My experience is, they will get more when they get older when they start out looking like that. I cull them when they look like that. Is the blue a pure blue or a blue copper? Black Copper to Blue Copper mating yields 50% of each.
If she came from a Blue Copper, she is considered a Blue Copper even if she never gets any copper coloring.

 

[sbrown]

No, you don't want that much color on the breast. My experience is, they will get more when they get older when they start out looking like that. I cull them when they look like that. Is the blue a pure blue or a blue copper? Black Copper to Blue Copper mating yields 50% of each.
If she came from a Blue Copper, she is considered a Blue Copper even if she never gets any copper coloring.

I believe she did come from a blue copper. I didn't see the parents since I got the eggs from a local source. I have 2 other cockerels I beleive and they are not showing but a little coloring so far. I will keep them all until they mature out some more and just see.

 

[TulsaChick]

So, since FBCM eggs are sought after by high end chefs (so I read) do their eggs taste different or make a difference when used or baking!

 

[ladycat]

So, since FBCM eggs are sought after by high end chefs (so I read) do their eggs taste different or make a difference when used or baking!

I can't tell a difference.

I'm always hearing Maran's eggs are favored by James Bond. I don't know what movie(s) that may have come from. There are something like 22 or 23 James Bond movies. One of these days I'll watch them all to find the Marans reference.